Intra-EU Differences in Regulation-Caused Administrative Burden for Companies

CPB's contribution to the EU's 2005 Competitiveness Report includes Worldscan simulations for several aspects of the EU's Lisbon Agenda. One of the simulations concerns the macroeconomic consequences of lowering the administrative burdens for companies throughout the EU. This paper provides data that describe the baseline situation of administrative burdens for companies in the EU member states. This research note defines the concept of administrative burden for companies, using the concept of a standard information event caused by mandatory information requirements. A systematic comparison is made for most of the present EU countries. Different procedures for quantifying and aggregating the costs of the administrative burden are presented.